Thursday, October 28, 2004

Powell backpedals on Taiwan remarks

Colin Powell is probably a very nice man. A man who loves his wife, his children and his household pets. This man is also a complete idiot and his remarks, the ones he is apologizing for now are the kind of remarks that lead to war. When he veered so inexplicably from decades of American foreign policy and suggested that Taiwan is not an independent country which it is -de facto (in fact if not in law) rather than the traditional nonanswer designed to not incite the Red Chinese and still stand by the Taiwanese government, Powell gave a very real indication to the Red Chinese that they could invade Taiwan and not face a war with the United States. Like the ambiguious signals which led Saddam to believe that his invasion of Kuwaiit would not be opposed by the United States the remarks by Powell made the possibility of war more likely. It is hard to believe that he would not know the proper words to use and the proper signals to give and it seems like this internationalist and real opponent to United States foreign policy didn't do it on purpose. His backtracking to official US policy means that hehas been freelancing and doing what Powell does best - namely going to the biggest enemies of the United States and kissing their asses on our behalf. Don't you just hate political ex-generals?